Sick
by Clouds On the Brain
Summary: Zelda falls ill during an obligatory excursion to the Kokiri Forest. Link, despite the Princess's protests, decides to tend to her while they wait for her ride home to arrive. Need I say more? Not a lemon, for you perverts out there. Yeah, that's right, scroll right on by.


**An idea from a reviewer. Actually, I'd always toyed with this idea before (with every pairing I ship) but this is the only one I've ever put into writing. Thanks for the push.**

**Enjoy! (Or, you know, maybe not)**

Zelda felt a tickling sensation start to build up inside of her nostrils. Knowing exactly what was coming, she ransacked her travel satchel, looking for a tissue.

"Ah—ah_choo!_"

Finding nothing, she was forced to pinch her nose shut before any offending substances could escape. The carriage driver looked back at her. "Are you okay, your highness?" he asked. "You're not coming down with an illness, are you?"

She shook her head. "It was just a sneeze. Allergies, I'm sure."

The carriage stopped in front of a tunnel in the southernmost point of Hyrule. Zelda stepped out and headed inside.

"Link, wake up! Princess Zelda is here!" A female Kokiri shouted this up at Link's doorway, as the young monarch walked past her and into the Great Deku Sprout's area. A barrage of clattering and thumping sounds suddenly came from the tree house.

Link dashed out the door and ignored the ladder, choosing to simply jump to the ground. He landed on his feet.

"Thanks!" he said to the Kokiri girl.

Link had told the Kokiri about what he really was, a Hylian, a long time ago. Most of them accepted it pretty quickly, having noticed how familiar he was earlier on anyway, but Mido hadn't taken it very well. At first he tried to get Link to leave the forest, since he wasn't a Kokiri, but eventually he came to terms with the situation and allowed Link to stay. The two of them had a slightly better relationship than they had when Link was a child, but it was still pretty similar.

Zelda stood in front of the Great Deku Sprout, reciting the oaths that made up the ceremony to renew a race's allegiance to the royal family.

"…and in return for these services, what will you do for the rest of Hyrule and its monarchy?"

The Great Deku Sprout replied, "We of the forest shall act as a barrier to protect this fair country from the evil forces of the outside world. This, as the leader of forest, I swear."

Zelda clapped her hands. "The oaths are complete! Good work, everyone."

When no one was looking, she walked behind a nearby tree where she thought no one could see her. She slumped forward.

_Ugh, I feel terrible... _she thought. _I can't stop sneezing, my head is throbbing, and I feel like I'm going to pass out. I want to go to bed._

She considered telling Link about her symptoms. Her carriage had gone home, and would pick her up the next morning after she had mingled with the forest folk, as the custom of renewing a race's allegiance goes. It took a day to get back from the Kokiri forest to the castle. Zelda didn't think she would be able to wait two days to see a doctor if she had to act strong in front of her subjects the whole time. Link could take her home on his horse.

Showing weakness was not an option. She didn't want to give the Kokiri or any of her kingdom's inhabitants a reason to worry. If she went back to the castle sick, though, abandoning the tradition of staying a day after the ceremony, she would certainly cause just as much grief as if she decided to tough it out and fail.

_So I won't fail._ she decided. _I'll just have to act like nothing is wrong for the rest of the day, sleep all night, and pretend I'm still okay in the morning when my carriage driver picks me up. I can pass out once we're safely out of sight._

Pleased with her decision, she turned around, only to come face to face with Link.

"L-Link! Good morning!" she stuttered, trying to smile.

Link smiled back. "Hey, Zelda. I see you just finished up your official business, so why don't we go goof off somewhere for a while?'

She felt her face turn red, mostly because of the budding fever she'd noticed she was getting. Link was beginning to look blurry.

"No, I can't… I still have things to do here. I'll need to meet the other members of the Kokiri tribe and earn their trust. I don't have time to—."

She went into a fit of coughing. Link reached out to her, but she put her hand up, signaling him to stay put.

"Zellie, are you okay?" he asked. "You sound like garbage."

She glared at him. "Gee, thanks. And what's with that nick name? You haven't called me that since we were kids. Cut it out."

"I'm worried about you. Are you sick?"

"No, I'm fine. It's just a scratchy throat." She coughed again. "I'm going to go talk with your friends. Don't follow me. I'll see you later, all right?"

He nodded, reluctantly, and she walked away. Link didn't want to make her angrier by pointing out that he would still be able to see her even if they were on opposite ends of the little forest.

After a few hours of mingling, a lot of polite and not-so-polite conversation, and hardly a single opportunity to sit down, Zelda no longer felt so sure of herself. Her face felt hot, but the rest of her was freezing. She still had a headache. Her throat was so scratchy that it hurt to swallow. She wondered if it was too late to ask Link to give her a ride back to the castle.

"Princess, you look… tired." said a blonde Kokiri, whom Zelda knew was named Fado. She was looking up at the monarch with concern swimming around in her eyes. "You look paler than usual, too. Are you okay?"

Zelda forced herself to smile once more. She felt her skull throbbing again, harder than ever. A chill ran down her arms and made her shiver. "I'm… just a little worn out today. I…"

Her eyes were completely losing focus, now. Fado became a messy water-color painting, which appeared to be painted by a toddler. The hot mid-day sun was beating down relentlessly on her.

"Oh, goodness…"

"Zelda!" Link called out her name as he watched her fall to her knees. He ran to her side, along with the other Kokiri, and placed his hand to her forehead.

"She's burning up. We need to get her to a place where she can rest."

"How about Saria's house?" suggested one of the Kokiri. "Ever since Saria became a sage, her house has been unoccupied."

Link nodded. "Right. Let's go."

He picked Zelda up, bridal style, and carried her through the doorway into Saria's old home. The bed inside was smaller than someone her size would be accustomed to, but luckily Zelda didn't sleep with her legs stretched out.

She seemed to be unconscious for a few minutes, but eventually her eyes opened. She looked around, slightly confused.

"Where am I? Link, is that you?" she croaked.

He sighed. "Thank the Goddesses; I thought you might have died. Yeah, it's me."

"Oh. Good…"

Fado tugged on Mido's tunic. "Hey, shouldn't we leave them alone? Those two?" she asked.

"What for?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"No…?"

"Well, can we go, anyway? And take the others outside, too? Please?" She gave him her best begging face, which was known to melt the heart of anyone who saw it.

Mido grunted. "Hmph. Fine. Let's go, everyone!" He walked outside, and his tribe members followed him.

Zelda tried to get up, but Link made her lay down again. "Don't push yourself." he ordered. "You're way too sick to be walking around right now."

She frowned. "You do not have the authority to order me around… I can handle myself, thank you."

When she tried to get up again, Link went as far as to push her back down by the shoulders. "Are you stupid?" he asked.

"I beg your pardon?"

He didn't let up the pressure on her shoulders. "You are in no condition to perform your duties. If you have a shred of common sense left, you'll get some rest and let your body heal itself."

Zelda was hesitant, as she wasn't used to being told what to do (and certainly wasn't used to being called stupid), but she wasn't an idiot. Link was saying nothing but the truth. Perhaps, staying in bed was a good idea.

Link, taking her silence as an agreement, took his hands away. "When is your carriage coming back? Tomorrow?"

She nodded, and then sneezed, plugging her nose again just in time. "If you go out to get a doctor, the carriage will already be here and gone by the time he arrives. Maybe you should just take me home on Epona now?"

"No way." he said, feeling her forehead again. It was still far too warm. "You can't ride on horseback like this. You'll just have to stay here until tomorrow morning, like you originally planned."

He took out a cloth from his adventure pouch, and then soaked it in the cold water that sat in the wash basin. He put the cloth on Zelda's forehead.

"That should help with the fever." he said.

He walked towards the door. "I all ready sent out for Granny at the potion shop in Kakariko. She's going to make you some medicine. While I go out to meet her, don't try to get out of bed."

Just as he went out the door, he added, "If you do try to get up, I _will _hunt you down, and I _will _glue you to the mattress."

She gulped, and nodded again.

When Link left the house, and then the forest, he expected to have to meet Granny halfway out in Hyrule field. (She was only an old woman, so she shouldn't have been able to move very quickly. Meeting her halfway would save time.) What he didn't expect was to see her standing right outside the forest, on the bridge.

"W-Whoa! How did you get here so fast?" he asked.

Granny took out a bottle from her knapsack. It was filled with a strange, silver-colored liquid. "I have my ways." she said. "Give this to the princess, and make sure she drinks all of it. Every last drop. She'll start to get better, and it should prevent anyone else from catching what she's got."

Link took the bottle. "Thanks. What do I owe you? I've got about five hundred rupees right here…"

"No rupees. Consider it a gift for Zelda." Granny said this and walked away.

Medicine in hand, Link jogged back to where Zelda was resting. He wasn't sure why he was so concerned about her. Sure, worrying when the head of your nation's royal family becomes ill is normal, but Zelda… her being sick was something else. The thought of anything bad happening to her made his stomach churn.

Currently, she was sleeping soundly. He watched her for a while, glad to see her getting some rest, but it wasn't long until her she started coughing again, which woke her from her slumber.

The first thing she saw when she awoke was Link's face. Their eyes met, and Zelda's face got redder—this time, not just because of the fever. Though, she'd been getting that same fluttering feeling in her chest whenever she was around Link long before that day.

Link guided her into a sitting position, and he put the bottle in her hands. He took out the cork and put in on the nightstand.

"Go on, drink up." he urged.

Zelda sniffed the contents of the bottle. "It smells weird."

"It probably tastes better than it smells."

She took a sip and immediately grimaced. "Wrong! Very wrong! It tastes worse!" She tried to give the medicine back to him. "I'm not drinking it. I think I can wait until the carriage brings me back to the castle."

Link rolled his eyes. "You were planning on waiting until the carriage came to get you before admitting you were sick, too, and look how well that turned out. Drink it."

"You can't make me, peasant!" She gave him a stony glare, which would have normally intimidated most people, but utterly failed to do so in her weakened state. Besides; nothing really intimidated Link.

He frowned. Zelda was being way too stubborn. He wanted her to get better, and he cared for nothing else but that and her happiness, but her refusing to simply drink her medicine infuriated him in more ways than he could imagine.

He held the bottle in front of her face. "If you really won't take it, I can force feed it to you through mouth-to-mouth." His expression had grown very dark and very cold.

She gaped at him. "Wh—_What? _Ew, n-n-n-no way! And stop staring at me like that, you're scaring me!"

"So you'll drink it yourself?"

"No! It's disgusting!" She sealed her lips shut.

He sighed. "All right, I didn't want to do this, but…" He pinched her nose, cringing when a bit of snot leaked out. Zelda, now lacking in an open pathway for taking in oxygen, tried for as long as she could to resist the urge to open her mouth. Her face was getting redder and redder.

Finally, when she could stand it no longer, she opened her mouth and took a deep breath. Link used this moment to press the rim of the bottle to her lips and started pouring the medicine into her mouth.

She would choke if she didn't swallow. Even though her taste buds were loudly protesting every second that they drowned in the chalky liquid, she swallowed, until the bottle was empty. Satisfied, Link wiped his fingers off on the bottom of his tunic and went to the wash basin to rinse out the bottle.

Zelda coughed, like she was trying to get rid of the medicine that was now sitting in her stomach. She spat at Link, "You're a tyrant, pick on the weak like that."

Link chuckled. "I don't think forcing you to take your medicine is abuse of power. Would a tyrant offer you something to get rid of the taste?" He handed her the newly cleaned bottle, which was filled with water.

She took it and drank. "…thanks, I guess."

She shivered. Noticing this, Link pulled the covers up closer to her chin.

"Don't!" she protested, wriggling away from the blankets. "It's too hot."

"Aren't you cold, though?"

"Yes, but the blankets are too hot!"

He persisted in pulling up the covers, until Zelda finally gave up and let him tuck her in. She mumbled, "It's still too hot."

"Sweat it out. It's healthier than freezing."

The sun set, and soon it grew dark. Once the medicine began to kick in, Zelda felt drowsy and quickly went back to sleep. She didn't stir for a good many more hours.

It was morning when she awoke. She sat up, feeling surprisingly refreshed and stronger than before. The medicine had worked wonders. She noticed that Link was still sitting by her bedside, now snoring away as he sat on the stool he'd pulled up earlier. His eyes had dark circles underneath them.

"You stayed?" she asked, smiling for real this time. The fluttering sensation in her chest from before started up again, but it felt nice. She went to brush Link's bangs out of the way of his face, but his hand suddenly moved and caught her wrist.

His eyes opened. "Glad to see you're feeling better, Princess. Do you think your carriage is here yet?"

She blinked. "Carriage? O-Oh, right! Come on, we'd better check!"

She dashed out of the house and into the Kokiri village. The childlike members of the tribe were delighted to see she wasn't sick anymore.

At the edge of Hyrule field, the carriage driver was waiting for her. He gave her an apologetic bow. "I'm deeply sorry, Princess Zelda," he said, "but on the way here, one of the carriage wheels was broken. I'm afraid it isn't fit to carry passengers."

Her face fell. "I-Is that so…?"

"Also," continued the driver, "I need the horses to pull the damaged carriage back for repairs, so I can't loan you one to ride on… again, I'm sorry. Would you be able to wait another few days before you come back to the castle?"

Link, now sitting on Epona, nudged Zelda in the shoulder with his boot. "Conveniently, I happen to have a horse she can use." he said, smirking at the princess. "Epona will only listen to me, though, so Zelda will have to ride with me."

She blushed. "Link, I don't know… it sounds improper."

He offered his hand to her. "Do you want to be stranded in the Kokiri forest for the rest of the week?"

She took the hand, letting him pull her up onto Epona's saddle. "No, thank you." Just in case, she wrapped her arms around him, so she wouldn't fall off. And for no other reason. Definitely not because she wanted to… nope…

Before flicking the reigns, he asked her, "Are you positive you're well enough to ride a horse? If you lose consciousness and fall off, I'm going to say I told you so."

"Never better, thanks to you. Now hurry up and take me home."

With a shrug, he set Epona off into a gallop and they sped off towards the sunset—er, actually, the sunrise. All Zelda knew was that her cheeks were redder than ever, but her fever was gone. It was a good feeling.

**The End.**

* * *

**...and now for the omake. (I'm shameless, I know)**

Zelda, in order to properly repay her dept, invited Link over to the castle for tea. As they sat at the table, she felt an overwhelming need to ask Link the question that had been burning a hole through her brain since she'd gotten back home.

"...Link, did you mean it when you said you'd give me my medicine through mouth-to-mouth if it came to it?" she asked.

Link nearly choked on the tea he was sucking down. He stared at her.

"Uh... maybe." he replied, his cheeks suddenly burning. "I-I-I don't know. You...you were being stubborn, so I just said the first thing that came to mind."

"That was the first solution you thought of?"

"N-N-NO! No...er, what I meant... what I meant was..."

He went back to drinking his tea, desperate to find something, anything, to make himself shut up. Zelda let the conversation drop. She decided that it was best that they focused on answering more important questions. Like, would she have wanted him to do that—?

No. No. Stop thinking like that. You're not some hormonal teenage girl. She tells herself this, hoping that Link doesn't notice her cheeks are now matching his. They sip their tea, each making their best effort to hold up a polite conversation, filled with meaningless pleasantries that neither of them would remember when they got home that day. Zelda's question was never truly answered.

**The End.**

**Review! If you're going to favorite, then you should review, too. I might even PM you if you favorite and run. (Don't run away...! *creepy face*) Flamers will be deleted, however.**


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